O, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God.

Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.

The earth has grown old with its burden of care, But at Christmas it always is young.

Never fear to bring the sublimest motive to the smallest duty, and the most infinite comfort to the smallest trouble.

Think of life as a voyage. The truest liver of the truest life is like a voyager who, as he sails, is not indifferent to all the beauty of the sea around him.

The earth has grown old with its burden of care, but at Christmas it always is young, the heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair, and its soul full of music breaks the air, when the song of angels is sung.

Genius, by its very intensity, decrees a special path of fire for its vivid power.